Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1794855874

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-179223

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Polner, Tichon I. http://d-nb.info/gnd/172311195

Title:: Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

Place of publication:: New Haven

Publisher:: Yale Univ. Press

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: XXV, 317 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XII. The Central Committee of the union of Zemstvos in the third year of the war

Collection:: Economics Books

256 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR concentrated entirely in the hands of official institutions such as the Red Cross Society. There was also the Committee for the Relief of Russian Prisoners of War, under the patronage of the Empress Alexandra. These institutions were in a position to obtain funds from the Treasury. Nevertheless, they proved incapable of develop- ing the distribution of material relief on a large scale. Among semi-official organizations, a committee formed by the mu- nicipality of Moscow was the only one that attempted to do some- thing in this direction.® At the close of 1915 a small conference met at Stockholm, which was attended by representatives of the Red Cross Societies of Russia, Germany, Austria, and several neutral countries. The conference drew up regulations which greatly facili- tated the practical efforts that were being made to relieve the hard- ships of prisoners of war. On this occasion the representatives of the Russian Government officially acknowledged the committee of the municipality of Moscow among the organizations engaged in the relief of Russian prisoners of war. This made it possible for the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns to undertake similar work and to form jointly with the committee of the municipality of Moscow, a body known as the “United Organization for the Relief of Prisoners of War.” A corresponding department was established under the Zemstvo Union on November 6, 1915. In December this department addressed an appeal for assistance to all the local organs of the Union, and in January, 1916, it was already functioning smoothly. The encouragement of initiative among the population was con- sidered in this field, as in all others, the principal task of the Zem- stvo Union. Needless to say, there was everywhere a sincere desire to come to the aid of brothers, fathers, and sons languishing in cap- tivity in enemy countries. The difficulty, however, was that there were very few people in the backward rural communities of Russia who knew exactly how to set about it. Gradually the Union estab- lished contact with 436 local organizations for the relief of pris- oners of war. These organizations were supplied with 60,000 free copies of a pamphlet describing in simple language the conditions ander which Russian prisoners had to live in Germany and Austria, and suggesting ways and means of relief. Hundreds of thousands of ¢ See Astrov, Effects of the War upon Russian Municipal Government and the All-Russian Union of Towns in the volume The War and the Russian Government (Yale University Press, 1929), p. 258 sqq.

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